Born in Chicago and now based in New York City, Billy Aukstik has played trumpet onstage and in the studio with a number of world-renowned acts. After attending New York University’s Jazz Studies program, Billy hit the road full-time, performing with Daptone Records recording artist Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires at venues and festivals around the world such as The Apollo Theatre, Bonnaroo, Coachella, The Beacon Theatre, Glastonbury Festival, Austin City Limits, Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival and Monterey Pop Festival. He later joined fellow Daptone recording artists Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, The Budos Band, The Menahan Street Band, Lee Fields & The Expressions, Antibalas and the Sugarman 3 for tours worldwide including a two-week Daptone Super Soul Revue tour through Europe where Billy performed nightly as a member of Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaries, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Saun & Starr and the Sugarman 3.
Over his 11-year professional career, Billy has performed onstage with other artists such as Mark Ronson, Erykah Badu, The Impressions, Mavis Staples, Bilal, CeeLo Green, The Roots, Chaka Khan, Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J Blige, Jessie J, Florence & The Machine, Allen Stone, Lady Wray, Thee Sacred Souls, Y La Bamba, Valerie June, Anbessa Orchestra, Gili Yalo, Ghost Funk Orchestra, Kelly Finnigan, Fiona Silver, Paul & The Tall Trees, Eli “Paperboy” Reed, Renaldo Domino, Archie Bell, Swamp Dogg, The Jay Vons, Michael Leonhart Orchestra, Odetta Hartman, EMEFE, Jake Snider, The Lonesome Prairie Dogs, Lukas Graham, The Heavy, Jim Lauderdale, Paolo Nutini, Meghan Trainor, Randy Newman, Kevin Parker, Andrew Wyatt, Daniel Merriweather, George Clinton, Theophilus London and GRiZ. Billy has also performed on TV shows including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night with Seth Myers, Conan, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Live with Kelly & Michael, VH1 Divas, and Later… with Jools Holland.
As a studio musician, Billy has performed trumpet and arranged for horn sections on recordings by Charles Bradley & The Menahan Street Band, The Roots, Ghostface Killah, Mac Miller (THE GRAMMY NOMINATED ALBUM SWIMMING), El Michels Affair, BADBADNOTGOOD, Michael Rault, Curtis Harding, Jazmine Sullivan, Kelly Finnigan, Renaldo Domino, WILSN, EMEFE, Ghost Funk Orchestra, The Bogie Band, Combo Lulo, Eli “Paperboy” Reed, Howard, The So Ons, Kiko Bun, The Impressions, Luca Sapio and Y La Bamba. Billy has also worked with GRAMMY-award winning record producers Mark Ronson, Gabe Roth, Questlove, Tommy Brenneck, Victor Axelrod, Leon Michels and Frank Dukes.
In 2015, Billy founded his own independent record label, Dala Records, and has since produced and engineered 9 full-length albums and nearly 50 singles for his 17-artist roster including Bobby Harden, Kyle Lacy, Sweet Megg, Camellia Hartman, SARASON, Emily Rault, Billy the Kid, The Hook Brothers, Michael Harlen, Raymond James Mason, Steve Garvin, Georgia Lee Johnson, The Soulful Saints, Mel & Kim, The Rad Trads, Patrick Sargent and John Fatum. Music from the Dala catalog has been licensed for TV & Film on NBC, CBS and Netflix.
In 2017, along with fellow Extraordinaire Vince Chiarito & Dap-King Michael Buckley, Billy hand-built the analog-centric recording studio, Hive Mind Recording, in Brooklyn, NY. At Hive Mind Recording, Billy has become an in-demand engineer and producer, working with artists including The Far East, Anbessa Orchestra, Fiona Silver, Warren Malone, The Sweet Enoughs, Fat Night, Pan Amsterdam, Marlon Williams, WILSN, Sara Velazquez, The Great American Novel and Jesse Redwing.
Today, Billy is an in-demand trumpeter, producer, arranger, composer and engineer and can be found touring the world with GRiZ, Ghost Funk Orchestra, Valerie June and Gili Yalo.